


All Shades of You

by RainySteve



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Fluff, Multi, Slow Burn, Swimmer Percy Jackson
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-19
Updated: 2019-03-25
Packaged: 2019-08-26 05:48:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16675687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RainySteve/pseuds/RainySteve
Summary: Percy had always believed in soulmates, but had started losing fate when the world remained black and white. Annabeth had seen one color since she was little, but had thought nothing of it until she moved to New York.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a color soulmates AU based on a post made by ofswordsandpens in tumblr.

Annabeth saw color for the first time when she was seven. It was before her brothers had come along. Her father had just barely met her stepmother and she’d invited them to her family’s beach house. Annabeth’d been so focused on building the perfect sandcastle that she’d completely neglected the ocean in front of her even though it was her first proper visit to the beach. It wasn’t until her father called her from the water that she looked up.

It was unlike anything she’d ever seen. From her father’s bedtime stories she knew that the ocean was supposed to be blue or green. She never imagined it could be so many at once though. Deep green tinged with blues looked back at her. The colors were alive. She tried to mask her utter amazement but it must’ve shown on her face. Her father called to her once again, asking if anything was wrong. She forced herself to peel her eyes away and went back to her castle, never once mentioning it to anyone.

°°°°°°°°°

Percy had started to give up hope he’d ever see color. He’d spent so long in black and white that he’d started to believe they weren’t real, just something his mother had made up to get him to sleep during thunderstorms.

During one such storm, when Sally Jackson wasn’t there to lull him to sleep over the roar of lightning, he began to hope once again. It was too early for it to be light out but lightning lit the clouds every few seconds anyways. He’d buried his head in his pillow in an attempt to block it all out, but his heart continued to beat too furiously for him to go back to sleep. Finally, he braved a peek through his curtains and threw them all the way back with a gasp. It wasn’t color, he was sure he’d know the difference right away when he finally saw it, but it was the brightest Percy had ever seen anything be. It shone with fierce life. Maybe he was being too hopeful, but it tugged at his heart anyways.

°°°°°°°°°°°

“This is nice.” Annabeth doubted that Thalia thought her neat, bland dorm room was _nice_ but it was to her. There was also the added bonus of the peace and quiet she’d probably get without her brothers next door. “I can’t believe you’re actually here.”

Annabeth has been coming to New York since she was seven. During the summers for camp mostly, and that one time her family stayed for a full year. She’d met Thalia at one of her Dad’s charity dinners the first year they’d come to New York. Even though Thalia had been twelve, both girls had taken to each other right away. Thalia’d been there with her mother, whose career as a television actress had just started to fade, so she listened to the little blonde kid go on and on about the history of the Golden Gate Bridge. They had been like sisters ever since.

Thalia was the first person Annabeth called after a particularly nasty argument with her stepmother. She had helped Annabeth finally enroll in the New York boarding school she’d been eyeing for a while as a compromise.

“You’re actually pretty close to Grover’s school.” Thalia told her. They’d been pretty close with Grover Underwood before Luke died. They had all gone to the same summer camp. Annabeth had kept going even after Luke, but Thalia had stopped. She was surprised to hear Thalia still kept tabs of where he lived. She didn’t know if they were still talking. Grover had always changed the subject when she tried to bring it up.

Her anger at her father rose again with full force when she thought about the summer with Grover she didn’t get to spend. She made a mental note to call Grover up to hang out as soon as she was done moving in. Hopefully he figured out her Dad was acting crazy again and he wasn’t mad at her.

“What about you? How far away are you?” Annabeth asked. She hoped her nerves didn’t seep into her voice, but of course Thalia noticed.

“Close enough, kiddo. Don’t worry.”

°°°°°°°°°°°

“Aren’t you worried that once you see color it’ll look awful?” Percy wasn’t sure if Rachel was paying him any attention. She was glaring at the canvas in front of her, twirling her paintbrush too close to her nose.

She shrugged. “Maybe I’ll never find out.” She probably thought Percy was talking about the unfinished painting in front of her.

“Don’t you want to?”

Rachel put her brush down, turning towards Percy. “It’s not that I don’t want to. I just know that if I don’t I won’t be too beat up about it.” He didn’t know if he’d made a face, but Rachel seemed to notice something was up. “Why? Would you?”

“No-I mean- I don’t know…” Rachel was cool, but he’d only known her a few months. It felt too personal to talk about with her. He’d wanted to tell someone about the thunderstorm but the more he thought about it the more he convinced himself that he probably imagined it. Maybe he would tell Grover once school started.

Rachel sighed, going back to her painting. “We’re sixteen, Perce. If you really want it to happen, you’ve got time.”

“It’s not like I’m _dying_ for it to happen or anything.”

She chuckled. “Okay, Percy.”

“I’m not!”

Percy really hated the summers sometimes. Sure, having no school was awesome, but it’d always meant he’d have to work. Anything to get out of the house and not be with Smelly Gabe. He realized “Smelly Gabe” was a pretty childish nickname for his disgusting stepfather but he’d been eight when he thought it up, okay?

It also meant Grover was off to his summer camp, with his ‘awesome friends’ that he always went on about. Percy was pretty proud of himself from meeting Rachel this summer. Well, more like crashing into her since he did almost run her over with his skateboard. It’d been quite a sight having a frizzy-haired, shiny (he imagined she’d been covered in golden paint from the sheen of her skin and his mother’s description of the color) girl yelling at him. She said she’d forgive him if he donated to her cause (“Save Public School Art Programs”) but seeing as he was broke she settled for him giving her his honest opinion about her art. He’d been coming to her apartment each afternoon after his dog-walking job ever since. So far he’d helped her finish two paintings.

He hadn’t really stuck around for the art though. Percy was pretty confused as to why Rachel valued his opinion when he clearly didn’t know the first thing about painting, but she did. She made him feel smart, and she was pretty smart herself. Rachel was also attending Percy’s new school: Goode High School. They weren’t supposed to start for another week but Grover got back today and Percy was excited to have his two friends meet. He tried to ignore how lame it was that he only had two friends.

They were meeting at Rachel’s penthouse because it was big enough to fit two of Percy’s apartment in it and because it was always empty. Rachel’s parents tried to make up for leaving her alone all the time by providing her with endless amounts of cheese plates and all the take-out she wanted. Percy was also excited to see Grover’s face when he saw the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Percy’s phone buzzed with a text from Grover. _I’m at the lobby. U sure I got the right address?_

Percy smiled to himself and answered: _Yep I’ll buzz u in_

Grover’s face when Rachel opened the door for him was definitely worth it. Percy didn’t miss how uncomfortable all the attention seemed to make Rachel though, so he smiled at her and she couldn’t help but laugh along at Grover’s cry of excitement when he saw the enchiladas they’d ordered. “Whoa!” He hesitated but Rachel, clearly embarrassed insisted he’d go ahead. “What a great day. First Annabeth texts me she moved here and now enchiladas!”

“Wait.” Percy said, “Annabeth’s here?”


	2. Chapter 2

Annabeth couldn’t believe Grover had talked her into meeting this Percy kid that he always went on about. She started school tomorrow! She didn’t have time for this, she need to catch up on whatever they’d covered last year. Her private school back in San Francisco wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t even close to the level of The New York Institute of Science. Annabeth had left the summer reading to the last minute because it gave her a migraine. She couldn’t help but think how stupid she’d been as she sat beside Grover at the park. Reading with dyslexia was already hard enough without adding the stress of a time constraint.

“Is he going to take much longer, Grover?” She asked, hoping she didn’t sound rude. “I’ve really got to head back to my dorm soon.”

“Yeah he said he’d be here like five minutes ago, but he’s not answering his phone. Can you try looking around for him while I try to calling him again?”

“Sure. What does he look like?”

“He’s probably walking like five dogs. You should be able to spot him easily.”

Annabeth scanned the park, her eyes fleeting from an old couple to a little kid and his mom and finally to a boy that looked around her age indeed walking a large group of dogs. He was struggling to keep the largest one, a rather large rottweiler, away from a tiny chihuahua that didn’t seem to realize he was much smaller. “There he is,” she told Grover.

“Where? How can you tell?” He scrunched up his dark eyes trying to look at where she was pointing.

“There. With the dark hair right? He’s the one. He must be.”

Grover finally seemed to have spotted him and called over to him. The boy immediately looked up, almost losing his balance when the rottweiler spotted a squirrel and gave a particularly nasty tug. He smiled wide and waved back before walking towards them.

Annabeth stood completely still as he approached them. She couldn’t seem to catch her breath. It had nothing to do with the fact that this Percy guy was kind of cute (of course not!), it was just his eyes. His eyes that she could see were a bright, startling shade of green. Ocean green.

_Shit._

“Hi,” he said, sticking out his hand shyly, “I’m Percy.”

Annabeth stared down at the hand. Then back up at his face. She could feel Grover fidgeting beside her. He’d been nervous about the two of them meeting and not liking each other. She’d promised herself that she would at least give Percy a shot, but right now all she wanted to do was bolt. _Get it together._

Annabeth took Percy’s hand, averting her gaze from his eyes. “Annabeth.”

“Right,” said Grover, “so now that you’ve finally met I thought we could go grab something to eat.”

Annabeth was racking her brain for the nicest possible way to ditch but just then Percy cried out: “Yes! I’m starving!”

“What about all these dogs?”

Percy shrugged, kneeling down to scratch the rottweiler, who looked quite intimidating now that she was closer, behind the ears. “Mrs. O’Leary is hungry too.”

**********

Percy had wanted to hate Annabeth. He knew it was pretty unfair and it was just him being jealous of his best friend having another best friend. Still, knowing it didn’t make his feelings go away. But, turns out, that that Annabeth girl was actually pretty cool.

“Cool, but like in a scary way,” he told Grover after she’d left and they’d finished dropping off most of the dogs off. Percy hadn’t forgotten that steely look she gave him when he first offered her his hand. That was another thing as well. She had the most distracting eyes. If he could see color he’d guessed they were probably one of the light colors his mother had described to him, like blue or green, maybe even hazel. To him they just looked that shade between black and white that he sometimes caught, grey he’d been told it was called. He’d never really seen grey look like that though, almost like a storm.

It wasn’t only her eyes that intimidated Percy either. Annabeth Chase was simply the smartest person he’d ever come across. She pointed out buildings as they walked to the hot dog stand, going on and on about their structure. Usually, Percy wouldn’t really care for all of that, but she spoke with so much passion and confidence that he found himself holding on to every word she said. Her eyes just shone with life.

“I get it man,” Grover told him, “she’s like the smartest person I know. It can be pretty overwhelming. But she’s actually pretty nice. If anything, Thalia taught her how to look scary.”

Percy came down from his own confused thoughts for a second to catch that last name. Grover hadn’t mentioned Thalia in a while, not since another one of his camp friends -Luke- died a few years ago. He’d always wanted to ask him more about it, but for some reason it seemed as if Grover blamed himself for whatever it is that happened. Percy didn’t want to push him too far.

Both boys rounded the corner to the last dog owners’ apartment. Mrs. O’Leary was owned by a boy a few years older than them, Charles Beckendorf. Percy met him at the same school he met Grover, one of the many he’d gotten kicked out of over the years. He didn’t live too far from Percy and had even been nice enough to hook him up with the dog walking gig. Percy liked dogs, walking them was definitely one of his favorite jobs, but the real reason that he’d accepted was because he got to spend so much time with Beckendorf’s huge rottweiler. Like him, she seemed big and scary, but was actually pretty docile once you got to know her.

They both stopped a few doors before Beckendor’s apartment when they saw the girl he was talking to. Beckendorf had had the biggest crush on the girl that lived right across the hall from him, Silena Beugarde, ever since Percy met him. He’d never told him, but Percy was sure he could tell what color her eyes were. Now, the tall, dark-haired girl was standing right in front of their friend, who had the goofiest smile Percy had ever seen. He was still wearing his mechanic overalls and had a grease stain on his forehead but she didn’t seem to mind. He was much taller than her. Her delicate features were accentuated by the sharp contrast with his harsher ones, but they still scrunched up in a smile, guided a strand of her behind her ear.

After a couple of minutes she walked away towards where Grover and Percy were standing. Even though she was solid black and white to Percy he still felt a slight blush creep up his cheeks as she waved goodbye to all three of them.

“What was that about?” Percy asked as they finally walked into the apartment.

“What?” Beckendorf hadn’t stopped staring at his door. “Oh, uh, nothing,” he finally said, clearly wanting to change the subject. “How was Mrs. O’Leary today? Didn’t give you too much trouble?”

“You know she never does.”

“So you’re just going to pretend like Silena and you weren’t totally just flirting right now?” Asked Grover.

The older boy’s cheek’s got even darker. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” “Sure.” Whatever was going on Beckendorf was obviously going to keep the younger boys guessing. “What about you guys?” He asked, clearly wanted to divert the attention away from him. “You’re starting school next week right? Both of you?”

It’d been quite a feat getting another school to take Percy in given his track record. Beckendorf had offered to help, but it was already embarrassing enough that he knew he’d gotten expelled yet again. He’d vouched so much for Percy in the past.

“Yeah,” Percy said, “Goode High School for me.”

Beckendorf nodded. “That’s a pretty good school. I’ve heard they have a great swim team.”

Percy didn’t think Beckendorf was being as subtle as he thought he was. He’d joined the swim team at his last school, had even swam varsity. He doubted he’d tried again this year though. It’d been hard enough then to hide the evidence of Smelly Gabe’s drunken tantrums. Goode was one of those rich schools where they asked a lot of questions.

“Good for them,” Percy finally said, not missing the look both his friends exchanged.


	3. Chapter 3

“You nervous?” Asked Percy’s mother as she fixed his tie. Percy had had some pretty awful uniforms in his academic past -military school had held the top spot until now- but Goode High School’s combo of a tie, blazer and slacks took the cake. His mother had even had to spend a big chunk of her salary on  _real_  shoes (as the dean had so nicely pointed out during their last visit to her office) since he wouldn’t be allowed to use his usual beat-up converse or Reeboks.

And yes, maybe he was nervous, but he wasn’t about to show it and make his mother even more upset. “I’m fine, Mom.” Percy had heard her and Smelly Gabe arguing last night. He could see some of the argument on her arm today which made his blood boil. He tighten his wrist at the sight but bit back his anger. Sally Jackson had made her son promise not to confront her husband ever since Smelly Gabe had punched Percy’s lights out a couple of years ago. The only thing he could do was act as upbeat around her as possible, even if he was a little terrified of his new school. The dean has made it very clear to him that he was already starting on probation due to his record. He’d have no second chances.

“Are you having any classes with your new friend? Rachel right? She’s pretty.”  Sally had caught a brief glimpse of her when they were hanging around the park once. Percy had found it utterly embarrassing that she was checking in on him

_“Mom.”_

Sally tried to act innocent as her son blushed red and she finished tying his tie. After a quick breakfast, they both walked the few blocks to Sally’s work. He dropped her off at Sweet on America, the candy shop she worked at, but not before she kissed him on the cheek and fussed about his tie for another five minutes. He rode the subway the rest of the way to Goode once his mother finally released him. He was surprised to find Rachel already waiting for him at the steps of the brick building.

“Thought I’d give you a tour,” she told him with a dazzling smile. Rachel definitely wore the uniform better than he did, looking great in her skirt instead of his slacks. He’d been scared of her completely ignoring him once they finally started school, choosing to hang out with her real friends instead, so he graciously accepted her proposal. She asked for his schedule which he handed over. “Hmm you’ve got Dodds for Math. I’ve heard she can be a bit of a demon. But Blofis is pretty cool.”

“Blofish?”

“ _Blofis_ , Percy. He teaches English. I had him freshman year.”

 _Great_ , Percy thought. Being dyslexic English had always been one of his least favorite subjects. Thankfully they had homeroom together, so Percy followed Rachel to a classroom past a music room and through a couple trophy cases. Percy didn’t miss the fact that many of them were for swimming. It was even harder for him to avoid the sport when the Captain, a lean guy a couple of inches taller than Percy and with an unfortunate blonde quiff, and coach decided to barge in to his very first class and announce that they were having tryouts next Friday after school. “Isn’t the swim season like months away?” He asked Rachel, annoyed.

“Private schools have meets starting in November since most of them have heated, indoor pools.” _Great_. “Why? You swim?”

“Not really.”

***********

Annabeth Chase was  _not_  freaking out because Annabeth Chase simply did  _not_ freak out. She’d tried to concentrate on her classes all week but she was soon figuring out that it was hard to run away from the color green. Annabeth had once read in a book that her father had given her that green was somtimes associated with harmony. She felt like hitting whoever wrote that upside the head since it could not be further from the truth. Annabeth had been able to see just that very specific shade that the ocean took at times since she was seven, but, since meeting Percy, her color palette had marginally expanded. Now, she saw dozens of shades of green wherever she went and, rather than harmonious, it made her feel like bolting in the opposite direction. She could see the dark green of her school’s banner’s, the lighter tone of the kale as she watched the barista blend her a smoothie in the morning, her own notebook!

She wondered how people lived in a world full of color. How they managed to focus on anything when inanimate objects just screamed at you from all directions. She also felt a strong sense of indignation. She still didn’t even know who Percy  _was!_  Sure he’d seemed nice enough, a bit goofy, but definitely smarter than he looked. Still, she’d only known him for a day. No way this whole “soulmate” thing worked so fast. Was he also in her same situation? She stopped midway through her spiralling thoughts:  _what color are_  my  _eyes_? What if he wasn’t seeing any colors? Percy had seemed fidgety sure, but she thought that had more to do with his seemingly general susceptibility for hyperactivity than anything else.

When the bell finally rang and she realized that the whole hour had passed with her barely jotting down any notes, she decided to consult the one person she was certain could see color, or at least could at one point in her life.

 

 

“Well that took no time at all,” Thalia said as she graciously opened the door to her apartment. Annabeth practically stomped in after noticing that her door was, in fact, green. “How was school?”

Annabeth waved her hand dismissively as she plopped herself down onto Thalia’s ratty couch. “School’s fine! Schools is school!”

“Okay then, what’s up?”

All of the annoyance that had helped Annabeth refrain from properly freaking out started to wane under the older girl’s steely, almost mocking stare (which, thankfully, stayed colorless). She lost all her build up and opened her mouth just to close it back up at the feel of the dryness in her throat. Thalia making fun of her was a given, but she hadn’t really given herself room to figure how she really felt about it, about the fact that this was a pretty permanent change.

“Whoa, that serious, huh?” Thalia softened her look and went to sit beside Annabeth. “Did something happen with your Dad?”

Annabeth shook her head. “No. It’s-it’s not that.” She sighed, searching for the words to explain this. She’d never even told anyone about the ocean. “I think I might have found him.” She rolled her eyes when Thalia looked back at her blankly. Her mouth felt like it would reject saying the word  _soulmate_ out loud. This was ridiculous. “My soulmate, Thalia! There, you happy? You made me say it!”

Whatever Thalia was expecting her to say, it probably wasn’t that. “When...who?” Annabeth knew Thalia always felt awkward talking about these types of things. She was getting that look she got when kids starting to her, half concern and half panic.

“This kid named Percy, Grover’s friend.” Annabeth said quickly. “I barely even know him.”

“Do you want to? Get to know him, I mean.”

Annabeth thought that an odd question. “Well shouldn’t I?”

“You’re sixteen, kid. And it’s your choice.”

Annabeth built up the courage to ask what she’d wanted to know for a while and what had been eating at her even more since meeting Percy. “What did you do? When you met Luke? Did you tell him?”

Thalia looked down at her hands, a sad smile on her face. “Nah. I was too busy freaking out about it. I think Grover always knew, but it took Luke a while to figure it out.”

“That was when you finally got together, right?”

Thalia shook her head. “It wasn’t because of that. When I first started seeing color I barely knew him. We chose each other. That’s why it meant anything. I could’ve kept seeing black and white for all I cared.”

“What color were his eyes?”

She looked up but quickly turned away. Annabeth didn’t fail to notice a small tear sliding down her cheek though. “Blue.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Blue**

/bloo/

_Adjective_

  1. of a color intermediate between green and violet, as of the sky or sea on a sunny day.



Annabeth pinched her nose as she squinted through the brightness of her phone screen. _Between green and violet_. She guessed that meant that she was moving through the color spectrum.  _As of the sky._ Yeah, she’d almost had a heart attack yesterday when she’d looked up, bracing for the recently bright green leaves of the trees, and was slapped with a clear, blue sky looking back down at her. Was this the color of Luke’s eyes? Was this what Thalia had seen all those years ago?

She sighed as she locked her phone’s screen and settled back down onto her pillow, sparing a quick glance to her roomate to make sure she hadn’t disturbed her. It was now obvious to her that she couldn’t keep ignoring this. Grover had tried to hang out with her more the past couple of weeks but she had guiltily denied in fear of Percy being there. Now she made the colossal effort of putting her pride aside and unlocked her phone once again, sending Grover a text asking if they could meet up tomorrow after school.

Even though it was around 12 am Grover answered right away.  ** _Sure! Where?_**

**_I dunno ur the new yorker_** , she answered back.

**_I know a great enchilada place._ **

She was about to answer but noticed the ellipses that told her Grover was still typing.

_**Tell thalia to come?** _

**_Sure thing_**. Annabeth knew that Thalia had been avoiding Grover longer than she had and felt guilty all over again about ghosting Grover for the past couple of weeks. She didn’t know if Thalia would agree, but it was worth asking anyways.

Annabeth walked to the address Grover had texted her this morning, self-conscious of her stupid, plaid school skirt. She spotted Grover right away and walked towards the booth he was at, careful to avoid tripping over the crutches he had propped beside him. “Those new?” Annabeth asked as a form of greeting. She hadn’t seen that particular pair before. Grover had EDS (Ehlers-Danlos syndrome) which meant he had pretty bad hips and chronic pain that fluctuated day to day so he didn’t always use his crutches.

He looked up from his menu and smiled at her. “Yep.” Grover looked past her hopefully, but Thalia had politely declined her invitation to come. She’d been acting a bit distant with Annabeth too now that she thought about it, ever since she told her about Percy and brought up Luke.

“So what’s good here?” She asked as a way to keep his spirits up. “I mean besides the enchiladas.”

He took a second to answer but collected himself quickly enough. “The guac isn’t bad,” he told her. “Percy approves of it even though he says his mom’s is way better.”

Annabeth ended up ordering the enchiladas and they fell into an easy conversation about school. She did a lot of the talking. Grover had never had a good time at school. She’d hoped things had gotten better with Percy there. She voiced her concern once she felt his guard go down.

He smiled a little to himself, he wasn’t nearly as proud as Thalia or Annabeth but she could tell the question still made hime bristle a little bit. “It was definitely better with Percy there. He got too worked up when people, you know,” Acted like assholes, Annabeth wanted to say but nodded instead. Her mind focused on the ‘was’. “He could give Thalia a run for her money with the temper he’s got.”

“What do you mean was? I thought you guys went to school together.”

By the way Grover stiffened she could tell it was a touchy subject. “He’s going to a different school this year.”

“How come?”

“It’s not really my place to say.” Grover had always been a sensible person, careful with how he handled his friend’s personal business. Annabeth could respect that, but she still wondered. By the way that Grover referred to it she could only guess that Percy’s departure wasn’t amicable. The mention of Percy’s temper also struck her as odd since he’d seemed pretty friendly when she’d met him. “It wasn’t really his fault,” he added hastily at the sight of Annabeth’s face. “He’s just got pretty rotten luck to be honest.”

Annabeth nodded, understanding that that was as much as Grover was willing to share about that particular matter. It eased her mind a little bit that Grover was quick to defend him though, he’s always been a great judge of character. Mostly.

********************

Percy couldn’t believe he’d let Rachel talk him into trying out for the swim team. He knew that Beckendorf held some of the blame as well, practically guiltying him into doing it. No doubt he’d also spoken with his mother since she just happened to know the date of the try-outs as well and had casually asked him if he was going to go for it. Percy knew that Sally had loved the fact that he’d joined the swim team at his last school. His grades had gotten slightly better and he had a good reason to be out of the apartment. Percy had even started considering the idea of college as an actual possibility for a while. Then people started asking too many questions. It was almost impossible to hide the bruises. It all fell apart pretty quickly after. He hadn’t forgotten the utter look of disappointment his mother had worn as the principal told her he wouldn’t be welcomed back to the school and that the other student’s family was likely to press charges. He couldn’t bare to do that to her again.

_What am I doing?_  He asked himself for the millionth time that day as he walked out of the lockers, cap and goggles in hand. His heart was beating pretty fast, partly from nerves at the memory of what had happened the last time he’d been close to a pool, and partly in excitement at getting back in after so many months. 

He was one of the first ones there. The blond guy he’d seen earlier in the week was there with three other freshmen-looking guys. He joined them wordlessly and got a brief nod from the blond captain. After about fifteen minutes, more boys started shuffling in. Percy could see the girls gathering around a tall brunette on the other side of the pool. Both captains signaled their groups to gather into one bigger group in the middle. “Alright! I believe this is everyone because if not you’re late!” Percy would never admit it but he actually set up about five alarms on his phone for particularly that reason. It was hard to keep track of time with his ADHD and he was known for being late. “My name is Lauren!”

“And I’m Cole,” chipped in blondie behind the taller girl.

“Right now we’re going to go through a standard warm up. If you’ve been on a team before you’re going to use the lanes on the right, if not use the ones on the left. The warm up is on the whiteboard behind me.” She pointed back and Percy started reading the routine.  _400 free, 400 combined_ … Nothing fancy. “We’re not going to split you off into boys and girls just now but we will be walking around and rearranging some of you guys.”

“But first,” Cole chipped in once again. He was holding a CD player for some reason. “We stretch.” He hit play and Mulan’s ‘I’ll Make a Man Out of You’ started playing. He didn’t seem to notice the various eye rolls and groans that followed and happily started to lead the stretch. Percy had to bite down on his lip at the sight of Lauren doing windmills to the beat of Shang singing about honor and defeating the Huns with a completely stoic face. Both captains couldn’t be more different from each other.

Percy was moved three times throughout the warm up. By the end he was in a lane with two other guys and girls beside him. He’d always hated packed lanes both because he got kind of claustrophobic and because the constant brushing of his toes and having to slow down because of the person in front of him got on his nerves. One particular guy -he could only tell he was white behind his expensive goggles and cap- insisted on cutting ahead of him even when it was pretty obvious he was going extra hard to keep up with Percy’s pace. Percy forced himself to let it go since this was still only the warm-up.

After about twenty minutes they had them line up behind the diving blocks. “Okay! You’re all going to get two jumps! We only want to see your dives right now!” Lauren yelled over the commotion of about forty teenagers getting out of the pool. “Wait for my whistle!”

Percy waited for the five people in front of him to go. He felt his nerves mounting up in his chest as he got on the block. He almost realized too late that he’d actually failed to put his goggles on and barely had time to adjust them before the whistle went off. He landed smoothly in the water though, his hands touching the surface before anything else and letting himself glide for a couple of seconds before doing a dolphin kick to breach the surface. Braving a peak before ducking under the rail to the other lane, he saw that he’d reached just a little over half of the 25 meters. He swallowed his disappointment, last season he ate up more than three quarters of the pool with his dive.

As he lined up for his second dive, he made sure he had his goggles  were securely fastened, so by the time he was on the block again he felt much more confident. This time he reached his usual length. Things went pretty well from then on. They had them do a lap or two in each style, full speed, in medley order. Butterfly had always been Percy’s favorite style and he noticed some impressed nods as they noted his time of fifty four seconds for his hundred meter. Next came backstroke, followed by breaststroke, both of which Percy performed nicely at 58 and 57 seconds respectively.

They gave them some time to cool down before going for the fifty and one hundred meters freestyle. Percy’s nerves resurfaced as he waited for his turn to go for the fifty meters. He hadn’t missed Cole and Lauren talking to each other while sparing a few glances his way when he completed the hundred meters in 51 seconds. Even though he’s tied his personal best for the hundred everyone knew that the real show was in the fifty.

His heart started beating wildly when the guy in front of him completed his lap in twenty-four seconds. The girl afterwards swam it at twenty-eight earning an actual cheer from Lauren. Percy could tell she was pretty young, maybe even a freshman. His nerves were turning into actual nausea at this point. His arms felt heavy at his sides as he climbed up the block and he gave them a small shake before brushing his fingers against the ledge, toes curled around it. He let out a deep breath, tensed, and was off the block the second Lauren blew the whistle, his nerves vanishing the moment he hit the water. Percy’s only thoughts were  _faster, harder, keep it up, don’t slack_. Before he knew it, his feet were kicking off the wall, his lungs begging him to come up but him waiting so as to not cut off his glide. That extra boost of speed that he always managed in the last couple of seconds kicked in and he was reaching, reaching…

“Nice!” Percy looked up at Cole as he broke the water, breathing heavily but looking expectantly at the chronometer. “Twenty-two point five!”

The co-captain helped him up and patted him on the back, Lauren beamed at him but was already looking at the next set of swimmers on the block. Twenty-two point five. He was five tenths shy of his personal best. That’s an  _Olympic qualifying time, Jackson._  He remembered his last coach telling him. He’d swam it in twenty-two seconds during his last race. He tried not to think about it, but his stomach still churned in regret.


	5. Chapter 5

Percy groaned as he attempted to read the same passage of his history textbook for what appeared to be the hundredth time. The exhaustion that weighed over him thanks to swim practice two hours prior didn’t help either, nor the fact that he had to wake up early tomorrow for his dog-walking gig. He would have little time the rest of the weekend to catch up on homework since he’d taken on extra shifts at the local pool where he worked as a lifeguard to make up for what he couldn’t work during the weekdays now that he was in the swim team.

He got halfway through the passage once again but it was no use, the words just taunted him from the page, dancing around in weird, curvy waves. Frustrated, he slammed the book shut, immediately flinching at the sound. He hadn’t heard anyone come in but Smelly Gabe would give him hell for making any noise during his precious “TV time.” Percy slowly poked his head out of his room and was relieved to find he was home alone. His stepfather was probably out drinking with his buddies and his mom should’ve been heading home from the candy shop. He felt his phone buzz. It was a text from Sally.

**_Will probably get there in a few hours. Had to close up late and I stopped to get some groceries. Don’t wait up. Love you_ **

Percy texted back a quick reply, knowing full well she was probably closing up but at a new job. She had not wanted to admit it when he’d asked, too concentrated on congratulating him for making the team, but this definitely put a strain on money. His school tuition had already been too much even when he was working more frequently. He wondered once again if this was worth it, if  _he_  was worth it. He knew his mom wanted him to have what she didn’t, to finish high school and make it out of this neighbourhood. But he’d only managed to screw up every chance he’d gotten so far, and college just seemed too out of reach. His stepfather seemed to agree with it all being a waste. _I won’t waste a dime on your little delinquent kid, Sally!_  Percy had heard him and his mother arguing after she’d gotten Percy the interview at Goode. As if Smelly Gabe had ever contributed anything but anxiety to Percy’s life. He’d silently prayed he wouldn’t be allowed into the school, didn’t really see how considering his record and poor grades. But, somehow, he’d made it in.

He made his way into the kitchen and rummaged through the fridge. He’d made sure to have an extra large lunch but he had not eaten since practice and he was starving. Percy looked at the clock. 10:32 pm. He figured Beckendorf would be at his apartment, getting back from work himself. Last year he would alternate his time between practice and Beckendorf’s apartment. Most days Grover would join them and they would pass the time bothering Beckendorf about Silena or playing with Mrs. O’Leary. Yet another thing Percy had screwed up when he got himself kicked out. He slammed the fridge door too, this time flinching because he knew he couldn’t afford to break the old thing. It’s not like Beckendorf had stopped inviting him over. He’d even hung out there a few days ago. Percy just couldn’t help but feel guilty whenever he saw him.

In the end, his own boredom and frustration won and he found himself in front of Beckendorf’s door. Mrs. O’Leary must’ve heard him come because Percy could hear her barking through the door. A few seconds later there was Beckendorf staring down at him, still im his mechanic overalls. “Hey! Everything okay?” Percy didn’t miss how his dark eyes scanned his face. There had been a couple of times last year when he’d knocked on his door later at night looking worse for wear.

“Yeah,” he answered casually, “I just got bored. Can I come in?”

“Yeah, of course.” Beckendorf stepped aside, making sure to hold on to Mrs. O’Leary’s colar. The large Rottweiler had started bounding happily at the sight of Percy, who scratched her ears on his way in. Beckendorf knew Percy too well. “You hungry?” He asked as they shuffled into his living room/kitchen.

Percy tried not to look too embarrassed as he admitted: “I’m starving.”

************

“What?” Percy asked Grover for the second time. He’d been too focused on a scrawny kid flopping around in the pool in front of him to hear what his friend was saying. He’d seen the kid before, not the strongest swimmer but Percy could tell it was more due to lack of confidence than anything else. He’d seen him manage quite well in the shallower parts of the pool. Today it seemed like he’d finally decided to try out the deeper end though. The kid’s parents were nowhere to be seen, and Percy could see the panic starting to creep into his face as he realized the water was too deep to stand in. “I’ll be right back.”

Percy slid into the water. He didn’t want to make a scene since the kid wasn’t actually drowning and he wanted to give him a chance to get out of there by himself. The boy spotted him right away, relief evident in his face. Percy was tall enough to stand in this part of the pool so he made his way slowly towards him. “Hey there.” The kid didn’t make a dash to hold onto him so Percy knew hadn’t gotten too desperate, but the way he was flopping around would tire him out soon enough. “What’s your name?”  

The kid, looking mildly embarrassed, told him it was Trevor. Slowly but surely, Percy got Trevor to paddle to a shallower part of the pool. His parents finally made an appearance not soon after. “Hey ma’am,” Percy called. They were clearly here just to pick him up and they didn’t look too happy about it. The father hadn’t even looked up from his phone. “Is this your kid?” The mother, a woman that appeared to be blonde with unusually dark skin (through his limited color palette Percy assumed it was due to a bad tanning job), looked him up and down but didn’t find it within herself to answer. “I had to help Travis swim away from the deeper end of the pool. He’s not a strong enough swimmer yet for you to leave him on his own like-”

“Oh, I’m sorry, are you complaining about doing your job?” The woman’s tone made Percy’s blood boil but he clenched his fists to keep his temper in check. He didn’t need any complaints going to his supervisor. He tried to apologize but the woman was too busy yanking Trevor out of the water to care. Percy tried to put on a fake smile as he waved goodbye to the kid and sulked back to his chair.

Grover looked distastefully at the spot where the woman had gone. “A plus parenting, huh?”

Percy rolled his eyes in agreement and slumped back into his chair. “What were you saying before?”

“Oh right,” Grover tried to calm his nerves, but he’d never been a good liar and Percy knew him pretty well by now. Grover was hoping to catch Percy in a good mood since he knew he wouldn’t like this next part very much. “Well, you know how you’ve been telling me you’ve been struggling with homework lately?”

That question alone was enough to hit a nerve. “I’m not  _struggling_ , Grover. I was just saying that I’m tired and I hate reading.”

“Yeah, well I was talking to Annabeth-” Grover held up a pleading hand before Percy could interrupt him- “She’s really smart, Percy! She could help you out after school!”

“Why did you have to tell her anything? I don’t even know her!”

“I didn’t tell her anything about _that!_ ” Grover argued. He knew it was hard for Percy to talk about people about his dyslexia and ADHD; he wouldn’t betray his trust like that. Little did Percy know, however, that Annabeth was in the same boat. “I just told her you needed some help with some subjects because I know she’s really good at all that stuff and she actually volunteered herself to tutor you.” It had taken Grover aback a bit actually. Annabeth was nice and always there to help, but she didn’t take on to new people right away. Grover hadn’t gotten the impression that she disliked Percy, but it usually took her a lot longer to show interest in new people. The only other person he knew she’d gotten along with right away was Thalia. Now that Grover thought about it, Percy and Thalia  _did_  have a lot in common, though.

“ _Tutor_  me?” Percy was looking thoroughly annoyed, eyes fixed on the water before him.

“She’s not going to charge you or anything,” Grover winced at his own comment. It was hard to manage Percy’s temper around this subject. He hated feeling pitied and wasn’t big on asking for help. “She’s just trying to help and she’s new here. She doesn’t know many people besides me and Thalia.” Percy sighed. “She’s the smartest person I know, Percy. I trust her. You met her. She’s cool.” Grover could tell he was going to give in. He knew Percy was worried about keeping his grades up. His swim coach had let him on the team under the condition that he would get his GPA up enough to get out of probation from the school. Grover was also secretly excited about his two best friends possibly becoming friends themselves.

“Fine,” Percy finally said, bringing his whistle up to his lips at the sight of a group of small girls chasing each other. He gave one firm blow and pointed at the sign that read  _No Running_  when they both whipped their heads towards him. “I’ve got some free time on Monday after practice.”

*************

Annabeth tapped her pen impatiently against the table she’d settled in at the library. It didn’t help her temper that today she found out that this same pen, which she’d been using since the beginning of the semester, was bright red.  _The color of romance_ , her father had once jokingly told her.  _And danger_ , Annabeth now thought. Yeah, that seemed more accurate in her case.

The guy was almost an hour late. She was about to give up when she heard what sounded like a chair being knocked over, a loud hush, and a quick apology. A few seconds later, there was Percy Jackson. His hair was still wet from what she assumed was swim practice and he was holding a battered skateboard under his arm. Annabeth was once again struck by the intense green of his eyes. She thought she’d gotten used to the color after seeing it everywhere for the past couple of weeks, but it still floored her. There was nothing else that was that exact shade of green.

“You’re late.”

He at least managed to look guilty as he pulled a chair out noisily, earning him a death glare from the librarian at the desk. “I know. I’m so sorry. We ended late and the subway broke down or something.”

Annabeth would’ve shrugged that off as a half-assed excuse but every time she’d gotten on the subway that week it had stopped for almost an hour. Percy also had a very sincere way of saying things that kind of put her on edge. She waved her hand dismissively. “It’s fine. Did you bring your book?” He pulled a history textbook from his battered backpack. She tried to ignore the fact he’d dogeared the page. “Fall of Constantinople, right?”

“Yeah.” She could tell this whole ordeal embarrassed him a little. It was becoming harder and harder to remember she was annoyed at him. “I just...can’t seem to understand why this city was so important. From what I managed to extract from the other chapter, it seems like this whole empire was already done for.”

“I mean it was certainly in decline, and the Ottoman Turks had taken the Balkans and Anatolia by this point. So that made Constantinople the last city holding up what used to be this seemingly unbreachable empire.” Annabeth saw Percy nodding along and jutting down some notes. There was no other way to call it, it was cute. “Constantinople also represented Mehmed’s rival religion.”

“Wait, so he tried to take it again? This Meh...however you say his name? He’d already tried before, right?”

“No, that was his dad.” Annabeth leaned closer to the passage Percy was looking at. He pushed the book towards her so she could get a better look. The font was so tiny that Annabeth almost got dizzy. It would’ve taken her almost an hour to decipher just one paragraph. She pushed the book back towards him, hoping he hadn’t noticed. Thankfully, she had always been good at remembering names and they’d gone over this in her school in San Francisco last year. “Murad was the one who failed to take the city and then his son Mehmed tried again and succeeded. He got this Hungarian artillery expert, Urban I think he was called, to build him a cannon powerful enough to take down the walls of the city.”

“Sorry, could you spell that last name?”

Something about the question made Annabeth falter for a second. Percy appeared to understand most of what they were talking about. It was the names that seemed to stump him. It sounded a little familiar. “Sure.” Annabeth spelled the name out for him and she watched him make some new notes. She thought about how Grover never failed to bring up Percy one way or another when she complained about homework assignments. “Once Mehmed seized the city he used the emperor’s famed cathedral as a mosque. I can’t remember the name though. Is it in your book? I don’t know if they’d want you to know it for class.”

Annabeth observed as Percy scanned the page; she could practically feel the frustration oozing off of him. She was absolutely certain her suspicions were correct when she saw him push the book a bit far away, a trick she herself had tried many times. “Hey Percy,” he grunted in response, still absorbed in the textbook, “are you maybe...dyslexic?”

She felt him tense right away. Grover hadn’t told her for a reason, it was clearly a touchy subject for him. Annabeth was grateful that Grover had also clearly failed to tell Percy about her. “I just think that’s why Grover brought all of this up.” He was now looking at her, a complicated look on his face, like he didn’t know whether or not he should be getting offended. “It’s just that,” it had always been hard for her to talk about it too. It was like a cosmic joke for someone that loved reading so much to be made in a way that made it almost impossible to do so. “I am too, dyslexic I mean. Just looking at that book just now made me want to throw up.” His expression immediately softened. Annabeth noted the way he could easily go from one emotion to another. “That font size is awful.”

“I know right. And it’s and older edition so it doesn’t have an audio version.”

“I think I still have one for my textbook last year. I don’t know if it has everything in this one but-”

“No, yeah. That’d be great! I mean if you don’t mind-”

Annabeth chuckled,  _definitely cute_. “I don’t, Percy.”

He thanked her once again and they finally exchanged numbers. They got through the main events of Constantinople. Annabeth remembered everything pretty well and Percy took notes. She felt light as a feather the whole time. She tried to ignore it. It’d never been this way with anyone she liked in the past. Her crush on Luke had been anything but light. Being with Percy was just  _nice_. She didn’t know about the whole ‘soulmate’ ordeal, she didn’t even know if she liked him  _that_  way really, but she definitely wanted to hang out with him again.

An hour later he casually checked his phone and almost jumped off his chair, earning him yet another glare from the librarian. Annabeth tried to mask her snort as a cough. “Sorry,” he said quickly. He turned to Annabeth. “I have to go. Are you free Thursday?” She was pretty sure she would be but she’d have to check. She could tell he was in a hurry though so she told Percy she’d text him. “Thanks again! See you then.”

Annabeth smiled silently to herself as Percy hurried out of the library, bumping into several chairs and failing beautifully at making a quiet exit. Her smiled melted when she looked down at the pen she was still holding. Bright red.


	6. Chapter 6

Purple, Annabeth had recently learned, was a color between red and blue, a combination of both. It was the color that peeked beneath Percy’s sleeve as he absentmindedly scratched the arm he was using to lean on her dorm bed, a bruise. Apparently she’d stared for too long because his cheeks flushed and he pulled down on the sleeve, burying his head deeper into the highlighted flashcards she’d made. It was clear to her that he didn’t want to talk about whatever had happened, but she couldn’t help worrying about the hand-sized mark on his arm for the rest of the hour. Percy was also quieter than usual and he looked like he’d gotten even less sleep than he normally did.  

Over the past couple of weeks, Percy and Annabeth had met up more frequently. She’d gotten to know him better. She still wasn’t sure about the whole “soulmate” thing, and, to her knowledge, Percy’s world was still very much in black and white, but she definitely considered him a friend now. She wondered if he considered  _her_  enough of a friend to talk about whatever was going on. He clearly needed to talk to someone.

“Your first meet is in two days, right?” Maybe he was just nervous about competing. It didn’t add up with the bruise but she decided not to push it.

“Yeah,” he didn’t look up but she could see his shoulders relax a little, “Coach put me in five events.”

“Do you usually swim that much?”

“Actually, I swam in all the events in my last school.”

“Oh excuse me I didn’t know I was talking to an  _all event_  swimmer.”

He finally looked up at her, green eyes rolling but laughing. He couldn’t hide the slight blush that had crept onto his cheeks. “Oh yes the Olympic committee is practically begging me to join the team, didn’t you hear? I’ve told them maybe due to my busy schedule.”

Annabeth snorted. She didn’t actually know if Percy was any good. She assumed he was good given all his Couch was doing to let him swim. Percy was apparently thinking similarly to her because he finally asked her if she wanted to go to his meet on Friday. Once again, he couldn’t help but blush a little. It sent a steady stream of butterflies into Annabeth’s stomach, but she ignored it and agreed. He quickly added that Grover was also going to be there.

 

They continued in mostly silence after that. Percy’s short burst of a good mood slowly dissipated, choosing to only talk to ask her about the notes. She still preferred this over the latter of hanging by herself in her room until her roomate Kacey got back from her boyfriend’s. Kacey was nice and all -she didn’t mind Percy coming over to study and had even covered for her once when the Dean almost found out (there was a strict ‘no boys’ policy in her dorms)- but she wasn’t Thalia or Grover or Percy. She wasn’t a friend. All the drama of meeting Percy aside, she was glad Grover had introduced them, she was sure she wouldn’t have made too many friends if he hadn’t.

She still couldn’t get the bruise out of her head after Percy left though.

*****************

Rachel knew that Percy’s relationship with his stepfather was rocky, to say the least. After a few months of hanging out with Percy, he’d finally let slip that his stepfather was being a pain but never more than that. Whenever Rachel had tried to pry a little further into what could possibly be going on, he always got defensive or made sure to quickly switch the topic. She could respect barriers, she always put up her own when he tried to ask about her own parents, but it wasn’t until she saw the fresh bruise in his arm that she finally felt the need to push further.

“How’d you get that?” The only reason she’d noticed was because the seatbelt had caught his sleeve as he pulled it over him. He’d been given her driving lessons for the last two weeks since his mom had taught him how to drive last summer and Rachel refused to let her parents pay for yet another driving school. 

“Get what?”

He clearly knew what she meant. “C’mon, Percy.”

He adjusted his shirt and tried to mask the annoyance he clearly felt. “It’s nothing, Rachel. Mrs. O’Leary saw a poodle and ran off and I fell.”

The thing about Percy was that he really sucked at lying if you caught him off guard. “And what? You just so happened to fall into a hand-shaped rock?” He was avoiding her eyes. “If you got into a fight you can tell me, y’know?”

His jaw stiffened. “Is that what you think happened?” Rachel knew he was meant to look angry but his eyes looked mostly hurt when they finally turned to her. “I just went and picked a fight while I was on probation because I’m that much of an idiot?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Just whatever Rachel. Let’s get this over with.”

Rachel wasn’t going to let this go that easily. And she wasn’t going to let Percy jump to his own conclusions either. “Of course I know you’re smart enough not to pick a fight, Percy! Are you kidding? I’ve seen you work your ass off to get to swim tomorrow! You know that’s not what I meant.” In response, he got out of the car.

Rachel’s heart was beating furiously as she slammed her own door and met him on the other side of the sleek, black, expensive car her Dad had let her ‘borrow’ when he found out she was giving driving another shot. “Just don’t!” Percy said before she could even catch her breath. He was properly angry now, it made him look scarier than Rachel knew he was. She knew Percy was harmless to her, but she still felt her body tense. Guilt flooded her the moment it happened because his anger vanished as soon as it had flared, his scowl settling into a tight-lipped expression that she didn’t think she would ever see in someone as goofy and playful as Percy. He tried looking away from her but she’d caught it nonetheless and it broke her heart.

She shouldn’t have pushed it. She needed to fix it. If Rachel was being honest with herself, Percy was the one friend she had. Sure she hung out with kids at school and she liked them, but Percy was the only one that seemed interested in what she actually liked, not what she pretended to. He didn’t have to hang out with her, he didn’t have to like her. He chose all of those things and that made it all even more valuable to her. Rachel reached out for his hand in a desperate motion. When he turned back she found she had nothing to say, wanting to fix things -to make him feel better- wasn’t enough. So she did the first thing that came to mind, she rushed forward and kissed him.

*********

The thing Percy liked most about being in the water was how he didn’t have to think about anything else. He could concentrate solely on the rhythmic pattern of his hand breaking the water, reaching, gliding, doing it again. His whole world was his timed breaths, the muffled noise beneath the surface. Most of the time, he didn’t even look beside him to the competitor in the next lane. He just pushed himself to his limit and sometimes found that he could go beyond that. It was exactly what he needed this week.

     It had all started when he didn’t hear his alarm Tuesday morning. Coach had kept them almost an hour longer the previous day, so he didn’t have time to catch up on homework like he usually did before work and ended up going to bed way later than he should have. His phone just kept going until it woke Gabe up. Sally had already left for work so it was only the two of them.

     Percy jolted awake at the sound of his bedroom door being thrown open followed by a stream of obscenities from his stepfather. At this point, Percy had perfected the art of tuning it all out, but the combination of no sleep and the sudden realization that he was definitely going to be late and would have to skip breakfast culminated in him losing his temper and talking back to Gabe. The older man had immediately taken a swing at him, which Percy had dodged by instinct. Percy hadn’t been able to escape his grasp though as Gabe shook him until he screamed himself hoarse. It had killed him to finally apologize to the older man, but Percy knew that if he didn’t de-escalate the situation quickly, Gabe would truly lose it and Percy didn’t have time to come up with something to cover for  _that_. He’d felt the soreness in his arm for the rest of the day but hadn’t actually noticed the bruise until it was time for practice. There wasn’t anything he could do to cover it so he just decided to not mention it, people’s need to appear polite almost always prevented them from asking any questions. Of course Coach had noticed it, but by the time he pulled him aside he’d formulated his “dog-walking” story. He didn’t look as convinced as Percy would’ve liked but it did the trick.

     Percy made sure to cover the bruise up with sleeves the rest of the week, but he should’ve known Annabeth was too smart to not notice. He knew she had, but she hadn’t pushed him or patronized him. Still, in her own way, she’d tried to make him feel better. Something about the way she’d asked him about the meet and teased him had made him feel so comfortable, it almost freaked it him out a little bit. It’d been a very brief moment but he couldn’t get it out of his head, not even after Rachel had kissed him.

      Percy liked Rachel, he liked her a lot. He definitely hadn’t stopped her from kissing him, but he wasn’t sure he would’ve ever initiated it himself. The rest of the afternoon after she’d kissed him, he’d debated the whole idea. He hadn’t really come up with any good reasons not to take this next step with Rachel. It was just that…

Percy tried to keep his mind blank through Coach Hedge’s pep talk, focused on tuning out the noise from the people on the bleachers as they stretched. He cursed Gabe for the millionth time that week as he tried to ease the still lingering soreness in his arm. He hoped Percy’s mom couldn’t see anything from her place on the bleachers. Sally waved at him when he caught her eyes. She looked a little self-conscious surrounded by all the rich swim moms, but Percy still felt they were no match to her dazzling smile and sparkling eyes. Seeing her calmed his nerves a little bit. He caught sight of Annabeth and Grover a few minutes later, for the first time he was painfully aware of how little clothes he was actually wearing.

He’d actively ignored the group of kids at the very front. Percy recognized some as the art kids Rachel hung around with and he was sure she was there because they’d talked about it yesterday. Neither had brought the kiss up again though.

It hadn’t been Percy’s first kiss, that happened in sixth grade at the only birthday party he’d been invited to, but it’d been his first  _real_  kiss. Maybe it was because he lacked experience, or because he’d romanticized the idea of soulmates so much, but it’d been pretty underwhelming. No butterflies or rush of excitement. He mainly remembered desperately trying to figure out what to do with his hands and then it was over. There was the other fact, something he’d talked himself out of believing for weeks now, to consider as well. The main reason why the kiss making feel nothing didn’t make sense in his mind.

Cole clasped his shoulder and he was once again brought to the present. If anything, at least the kiss had diverted his worry for the meet elsewhere. He hadn’t even put his cap and goggles on and he was going to start the two-hundred free relay. Couch had been mildly impressed with his times during practice, but not enough to let him anchor the relays. Percy needed to concentrate on starting them with an advantage. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, any other thoughts besides the race disappearing as his fingertips touched the block.

*********

Annabeth hated admitting it, but she was impressed. The water had caught her eye immediately upon entering the school. Since meeting Percy, she’d encountered so many shades of blue and green that she thought she’d finally seen them all, ocean water, after all, had been the first sign of color she remembered. But she hadn’t thought too much about it since coming to New York. Then there was Percy himself, he cut across the water so gracefully and with such precision, that he was out of the pool before she could process it all. She turned to Grover as the rest of his team swam their corresponding fifty meters, asking if that was it. No, Percy was set to swim in four other events.  _Right_ , Annabeth thought,  _he told me that_.

Annabeth didn’t usually go to sports events. Not because she didn’t like sports. On the contrary, she was actually thinking of trying out for her own school’s volleyball team and had started going to the gym with Thalia. She was just aware of how competitive she got and felt embarrassed about getting too passionate in front of a bunch of strangers, and Grover. Not to mention Sally Jackson (Sally, she had insisted Annabeth call her), Percy’s mom, who’d hugged her warmly upon being introduced by Grover and thanked her profusely for tutoring her son for the past few weeks. Annabeth liked her right away and felt herself get a little jealous of Percy for having such a great mom.

Annabeth’s relationship with her mother, a respected business woman who’d divorced her father before she was even born, had always been strained. It’s not that Annabeth didn’t love her, or that her mother in turn didn’t love Annabeth back, she just would’ve never felt comfortable enough with her coming to her sports events and doubted she would cheer her on as passionately as Sally Jackson was doing for Percy at the moment. Not to mention Annabeth’s lingering resentment towards Athena for refusing to take her in after things with her stepmother got worse. Athena’s argument had been that she traveled all the time and would never be there to look after her, but, considering Annabeth had still ended up without the supervision of a parent, Annabeth had taken that as another excuse for Athena not taking responsibility of her.

Percy was now swimming his third event, by himself this time. He came a few milliseconds behind his other team mate but still appeared to have an advantage over the other swimmers. Sally and Grover were only getting louder and louder, to the point that it was becoming infectious. By the time Percy was getting ready to swim the two hundred meter butterfly -which Annabeth remembered was Percy’s favorite event- Annabeth was cheering right along with them. This time Percy completely dominated from the start. His pace didn’t falter for a second, if anything it got faster each time he hit a wall. He ended up winning with almost a five second lead, getting a pat on the back from the Coach himself once he exited the water.

The last event, the four hundred free relay, was mayhem. Everyone around Annabeth was yelling just as loud as them now, the boys from all teams stood at the opposite end of the pool, yelling words of encouragement as the girls swam their hits. It was the closest out of all the races, the Goode girls winning by a last superhuman stretch of the anchor’s arm. The girls, along with the rest of the school and spectators, outdid themselves when it was time for the boys to swim as well.

One specific girl at the very end of the stands caught Annabeth’s attention. It was her hair, to be exact, that caught her eye. It was closely related to the red Annabeth was getting used to spotting, but warmer somehow. She remembered seeing glimpses of it during sundown a few days ago. A red-head. Annabeth could tell she was covered in paint even from her spot even thought she could only pick out a few of the colors that caked her expensive Goode High School uniform. She didn’t seem to know a lot about the sport, yelling Percy’s name even when he wasn’t in the water. Annabeth hadn’t really heard anyone but them call Percy by name.

“Who’s that?” She asked Grover, who was now jumping like a maniac as Goode’s anchor jumped in the water. Annabeth had to ask again to get a response, practically yelling in his ear.

“Oh! That’s Rachel! She’s cool!”

Annabeth did remember Percy mentioning someone called Rachel once or twice. She cheered along with everyone else as Goode’s anchor repeated the feat of the girls, but couldn’t shake a feeling of uneasiness as everyone began to file out, waving back at Percy robotically and then following Sally and Grover to the parking lot. Not before, however, catching a glimpse of Rachel jumping over the stands and pulling on Percy’s hand to whisper something in his ear. Something in Annabeth’s stomach stirred as she watched him nod to whatever Rachel has said to him, a small blush tinting his cheeks pink.

Sally left almost right away, regretting not being able to congratulate Percy but having to go to work. Annabeth decided to leave early as well, Grover had mentioned pizza earlier but now she didn’t feel too hungry. She couldn’t get the image of those fiery curls and Percy’s blushing face out of her mind. Just a few days ago  _she_  was making him blush. She scolded herself for even thinking about it for so long. Why should she care?

That night she looked over the color book her father had given her so many years ago, reviewing like she now often did all the colors she could now see. Blue. Purple. Red. Orange. Her eyes stayed on the page describing green. One word in particular jumped out at her.  _Envy._


	7. Chapter 7

Rachel had a hard time meeting Percy’s eyes in the parking lot. She faltered every time she tried to start to say what she wanted to say, losing confidence as another student passed them. She settled on waiting until they were alone. 

 

“Rachel, if it’s about the kiss…,” Percy started after a while of both of them standing awkwardly in silence, “don’t worry about it, okay?”

 

Rachel nodded, finally willing herself to look up at him. “It is about  _ that _ . I just...I’m sorry.”

 

“I mean I kissed you back.”

 

Her stomach twisted with nerves. She should’ve never kissed him. She didn’t know if Percy actually had those type of feelings towards her, but after kissing him she knew she didn’t. In fact, the kiss had confirmed something for her that she’d long pushed to the deepest parts of her subconscious. 

 

“And it’s not that I didn’t like it. It was nice,” he continued to ramble on nervously, apparently feeling the need to fill the silence, “and I really like you, Rach. A lot-”

 

“I think I’m gay.”

 

Percy’s eyes went wide. “Oh,” was all he managed to say and Rachel immediately regretted blurting it out. She’d ruined it. She’d finally managed to make a friend and she’d ruined it.

 

“Oh,” he said again.

 

“I’m sorry,” Rachel told him.

 

“What for?”

 

She stared at his beat up sneakers, feeling how uncomfortably warm her cheeks were getting. She’d never allowed herself to say that out loud, had only managed to recognize it for seconds at a time more and more during the last few months. When she met Percy and she found herself wanting to spend more time with him, she thought all her previous suspicions were all a big misunderstanding. But she’d felt nothing when she’d kissed him. The hours afterwards she tried to convince herself that that was how kisses actually were and that what she’d imagined before was overly romanticized. 

 

“I shouldn’t have kissed you, Percy. I’m sorry. If you don’t want to talk to me anymore…”

 

“Why wouldn’t I want to talk to you anymore? I like you. I don’t have many friends you know.”

 

She forced herself to look up at him. His immediate expression of disbelief was gone. He actually looked a bit relieved. 

 

It was the first time Rachel had ever allowed herself to say it outloud, and she was glad it’d been to Percy. “So... we’re good?”

 

He smiled. “Of course, always.”

 

There was a moment of silence between them where Rachel thought the conversation was over but neither one walked away. For a moment she started waiting for the inevitable ‘but’. Of course, always,  _ but… _

 

“Can I ask you something?” Percy said instead. She nodded, treading with caution. “How did you know?”

 

“Well, I didn’t. I mean, I wasn’t sure until I kissed you.”

 

He managed a smile. “That bad huh?”

 

“It had nothing to do with you, Percy. There was just…”

 

“Nothing,” he finished for her. He nodded in agreement. “It was the same for me. Not bad, just...not how a kiss is supposed to feel.”

 

“Yeah,” her nerves were disappearing by the second. “Exactly.”

 

“So, we’re good?” He asked. 

“We’re good.” 

 

He pulled her into a quick hug and she was more than happy to hug him back, not worrying about what it meant. Percy was a good guy, how could she have ever doubted it? 

 

“Thanks for telling me,” he told her before they went their separate ways. 

  
  
  


************

  
  


Percy stared at his reflection in the mirror that night, trying to quiet down the confused mess his mind had become in the past couple of hours. He thought of how nervous Rachel had looked and the pit in his stomach that’d formed once he realized she actually believed he would turn her away. He thought of their kiss and how uneventful it’d been (for both of them apparently). He thought of the handsome senior in his last high school swim team and how graceful he’s looked gliding in the pool during warm-ups. He thought of his first kiss four years ago and how fast his heart was beating and how clammy his palms had felt. For some reason he couldn’t bring himself to remember how Lindsey Bennet’s lips had felt, but there was a vague memory of Lip Smacker’s Skittle lip balm. 

 

Then there was Annabeth. 

 

Annabeth with her eyes like a storm and California sun freckles. Annabeth who was surprisingly gentle and intimidatingly smart, who made Algebra less daunting because he got to see her and who’d come to his meet. She’d come to his meet! When Percy saw her in the stands, his mind went so fuzzy he almost forgot to put on his goggles before he jumped into the water.  

 

He sighed and turned the water off before going back to his homework. Sally had insisted not to stay up for her, and of course Smelly Gabe hadn’t tried to argue, but he knew he wasn’t getting any sleep with all the noise his head was making. 

 

He regretted not going to bed early the next day, however, when he had to wake up at six. He knew his mom was as much or maybe even more tired than him so he put on a smile as they shared breakfast. 

 

Their brief moment of peace was interrupted when Gabe came marching out of his bedroom in his favorite ratty bathrobe, the one that barely covered his hairy potbelly, to hasle them about all the noise they were making. 

 

“Some of us have real work most days!” He barked at them. “And would like to enjoy the few days of rest we get!”

 

For once Percy almost agreed with him, but, seeing as the “some” Gabe was referring were actually him and his mother and he’d actually gotten home at six to a meal Sally had left prepared for him and then gone to bed by ten, Percy was reluctant to sympathize. 

 

“I don’t know why the hell you have to go out to your little pretend job just to cater to His Majesty’s special needs!” Gabe told Sally. “You should be here, seeing to me, where you belong.”

 

Percy closed his hand around his spoon so hard he could feel it bend. He hated how Gabe spoke to his mother, how much his remarks actually bothered him. If Percy hadn’t managed to get himself kicked out of all public schools, his mother wouldn’t have to take on another job. Maybe she wouldn’t have to depend on Gabe so much. 

 

He stood up and rinsed his plate in the sink, no longer hungry. 

 

“What did I just say?!” Gabe shouted at him. “This is what I’m talking about, Sally. Your kid has an attitude problem! You can’t tell him anything because he starts throwing things around. He needs to get back to those anger management classes, is what he needs.” 

 

Percy had been forced to attend anger management a few years back after he’d yelled at a teacher when he’d nagged him about being late to class. Gabe had made him late after forcing him to clean up his drunken mess from the night prior. His teacher reminding him what he obviously knew was one thing too many and suddenly the class plant was on the floor and there were shards of pottery everywhere. 

 

He hated to think of those classes, where they treated him as if he were a danger when he actually had to go home to an dangerous man that everyone seemed to have sympathy for. He did remember the breathing exercises though, and forced himself to inhale and exhale slowly so as not to turn around and say something to Gabe he’d regret. 

 

Sally looked like she was about to say something but Percy leaned down and kissed her cheek before she could, heading out with shaking hands. 

 

His day didn’t get any better after that. Mrs. O’Leary and the other two smaller dogs he was set to walk during the morning decided that today of all days was the right time to stop getting along. One of them ended up running away from him and into a white lady’s skirts at the park and he had to bite his tongue for a full ten minutes as she yelled at him for “Being so irresponsible and careless! What if it’d bitten me!”

 

By the time he made it back to Beckendorf’s he was uncharacteristically rude as he shoved Mrs. O’Leary into his apartment and took off to get his bag for his lifeguard gig. The image of Beck’s cheery smile melting away and the question he’d left hanging wrought his insides with guilt, but he was too tired and too late to go back down to apologize.

 

The usually comforting sight of water once he got to the pool did nothing to improve his mood either. He was stuck with his spiraling thoughts about Gabe, Beck, his mom, Rachel, and Annabeth. The last one in particular. He found himself daydreaming about her voice droning on and on about algebra and political coups and took some comfort knowing that he’d see her later that day to study for his upcoming History test. 

 

Finally, mercifully, the clock struck six and he was free to go. Percy felt the entire day’s stress falling away as he walked to the library. He was actually early for once, but early was just on time for Annabeth, so she was already there. He beamed down at her as he took his usual spot. 

 

“Hey.” 

 

She looked up at him and then back down to her book. By now he knew her routine enough to give her a moment before she dogeared the page and repeated himself once he had her attention. She gave him a quick nod and took his History textbook from him, highlighting several section of the chapter they’d gone over last time. “Did you go over the flashcards?” 

 

Barely. “Yeah.”

 

“Want me to quiz you?”

 

“Sure.”

 

He tried to hold onto how cheerful he’d felt moments prior, but it was hard work once he caught the ice in her tone. He tried to tell himself that she wasn’t being outright rude to him or anything. She was still helping him study after all, and on a Saturday. Whatever was going on, Percy thought, he should at least return Wednesday’s favor and try to make her feel better without pushing. 

 

“Didn’t catch you at the meet yesterday,” he started, “I saw you came though. Thanks.”

 

Something flashed across her eyes and he could almost see her pushing the feeling down as she forced on a smile. “Yeah, no problem. You were right. You’re good.”

 

“Thanks,” he said again.

 

“Met your mom. She’s great.”

 

He smiled at that. “I know. She liked you too.”

 

He thought he’d broken through whatever awkwardness had being going on, but she got back to quizzing him with the flashcards right away. After a while, his ADHD brain couldn’t take it any longer and he blurted out: “Is something wrong?”

 

“What? No! Why would it be?” 

 

The librarian shot them a pointed ‘shh!’ at the sound of Annabeth’s flustered response. She lowered her voice. “I’m fine, Percy,” she said, “let’s just get through these.”

 

“You seem off is all.”

 

“I’m  _ fine. _ ”

 

She clearly wasn’t. She seemed annoyed. “If you don’t want to do this right now it’s okay. You don’t have to.”

 

Annabeth rolled her eyes at him. “Let’s just get through these.” She started reading again but Percy knew annoyed when he heard it and he wasn’t about to keep her if she didn’t want to be there. 

 

“You know what? Let’s just meet some other day.”

 

“What are you talking about? Your test is on Monday and I can’t meet up tomorrow. I told you I was going to see Thalia.”

 

“It’s fine.”

 

She rolled her eyes at him again and it just made his head go fuzzy. He didn’t know if he was angry or aggravated or both. Why was his heart beating so loud? 

 

“It’s fine,” he said again. “We’ll meet some other day. You don’t have to do me any favors.”

 

She narrowed her eyes ta him like she couldn’t believe how stupid he sounded. “What are you even talking about?”

 

“Well you clearly don’t want to be here.”

 

Annabeth’s response was interrupted by yet another persistent ‘shh!’ from the librarian. 

 

“Whatever,” Annabeth whisper-shouted at Percy, “you’re impossible!” 

 

She shot the librarian a death glare before she couldn’t silence her again. “I’m leaving!” Annabeth told her as she gathered her stuff and stomped out of the library., throwing her head back so she didn’t have to look at Percy. 

 

Percy, feeling guilty right away, wanted to follow her. But then he saw how her hair caught the light and he found he couldn’t move- He was rooted to the spot because, ingrained in her long princess curls, was a color he’d only heard about in his mother’s stories. 

 

Bright, brilliant, gold. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT IS HERE FINALLY! This time I won't make any promises about when I'll update 'cus...  
> What I can say is that this is def a slowburn so buckle in.


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